November 2017

As you all know by now, I’ve been on a journey to re-wire and strengthen the Right side of my brain. Once I allowed myself to be open to a fun, creative, and stimulating world, I feel like my life has added a new kind of meaning and joy. This is a life-long journey for me. I am constantly looking for brilliant new ways to help me learn and grow. In this blog series, I want to share my findings with you. Every month, I will highlight three resources: one for your mind, one for your body, and one for your soul. I hope this carefully curated list of books, websites, YouTube channels, articles, podcasts, games, or just quick quotes will enhance your life, help you grow, and bring you joy and health as much as they did for me and my family.

Here is November’s list:

For Your Mind

Seriously, this is the only organization book you’ll ever need! Although I am not exactly the most organized person, I do hate clutter and accumulating crap I don’t need. I do find organizing extremely therapeutic because it gives me a sense of control, which most people with anxiety really thrive on. Clutter causes feelings of angst, overwhelm, and stress, and it surely increases cost, wastes time, and lowers productivity.

In this book, Jennifer has weekly and monthly tasks, not only for organizing yourself (mind, priorities, schedules), but also your papers, your things, high-traffic areas, storage, as well as your special events like holidays, parties, back-to-school, vacations, etc. Finally, she even has chapters on morning and evening routines, grocery shopping and meal planning. Literally, she covers everything. Like I said, the only organization book you’ll ever need.

For Your Body

I randomly stumbled over this book during my weekly library run. This is such a fun book, filled with inspirational pictures and stories about Maria’s life and experiences in Hollywood, as they relate to healthy eating and fitness. The pictures are amazing and highly motivating. She is truly gorgeous, but in a friendly, every girl kind of way.

She shares interviews with many of her celebrity friends such as Rebecca Romijn, Angie Harmon, Giada De Laurentis, and Suzanne Sommers. I specifically love this quote from Suzanne about her philosophy on health: “It’s a daily commitment. In order to benefit, it has to matter to you, or you’ll never do what is required to stay healthy. Poor health is miserable and it takes the joy out of life.”

The book has lots of recipes and exercise ideas, and lots of common-sense action steps that would eliminate any excuse or objection to getting off the couch. I particularly like the “at-your-desk” workout, the “bad-ass bedside” workout, and the “park-bench” workout.

For Your Soul

I discovered Naomi Destiny’s blog in a Facebook group where we agreed to collaborate. She asked me to do an interview for her Women & Careers series (you can read it here). We chatted by email a little and I checked out her website. Although she is an accountant by day, this young superwoman is so inspiring on her blog. And she is nothing like the accountant personality you’d imagine.

Her lifestyle blog is full of inspiring posts on affirmations, faith & spirituality, career, beauty, style, community, digital-techie, and girl power. She is truly a great role model for young (and higher age) women. And she is some sort of a modern Renaissance character. As I was reading her story, I would discover more and more of her passions, which at first site, may not necessarily fit together on paper, but she brings them all together on her blog in a perfect blend. I can’t imagine how hard would be to describe her digital brand, but somehow she makes it all work and does a fantastic job at it.